Machine for handling and cutting fish.



F. D. CLEVELAND.

MACHINE FOB. HANDLING AND CUTTING FISH.

mams.

APPLIOATION IILBD APR. 16, 1913.

Patented Nov. 18, 1913.

3 SHEETSSHEET 1' F. D. CLEVELAND.

MACHINE FOB. HANDLING AND GUTTING FISH.

APPLIOATION FILED APR. 16, 1913 1,078,718. Patented Nov. 18, 1913.

3 BHEETS8HEET 2.

F. D. CLEVELAND.

MACHINE FOR HANDLING AND CUTTING FISH.

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3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

ZUz Ltnesses WM/a f UNITED 'STAWENT ORB-1 E A EEANCIs D. CLEVEL ND, orWINCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, AssIcNoE To WILLIAH UNDERWOOD COMPANY, oroSToN, MASSACHUSETTS, A CoE'ronATIoN or mAssA- CHUSETTS.

new and useful Improvements in Machines for Handling and Cutting Fish,of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in machines for handlingand-cutting fish.

The object of the invention is to provide a simple, inexpensive machineadapted to sub-- divide-a mass of fish into fractional portions thereof,to segregate the fish constituting said fractional portions and todeliver said fish end foremost to means adapted to turn said fish headuppermost and to enga e said fish beneath the gills, to suspend an guidethe same by-their gills to cutting instrument'alities which sever theheads from the bodies thereof and deposit the bodies in one receptacleand the heads in another receptacle, the operation of said variousinstrumentalities, being entirely automatic from the dam ing of the fishin a mass into the subdividing mechanism until they are delivered, thebodies in one receptacle and the heads in an other.

The invention consists in the combination and arran ement of partswhereby the above objects an certain other objects hereinafter appearingare attained, as set forth in the following specification andparticularly pointed out in the claims. v

Referring to the drawings: Figure 1 is a plan view of a machineembodymg'my invention. Fig. 2 is a detail plan view of that portion ofthe machine whichis adapted to turn the fishon end, suspend and guidethe same by their gills, together with means for severing the heads fromthe bodies of said fish, parts of said severing mechanism being brokenaway to save space. Fig. 3' is a section, partly in elevation, taken online 3, 3

of Fig. 1 as viewed in the direction of the arrows on said line. Fig. 4is a transverse section taken on line 4, 1 of Fig. 2, with parts brokenaway to save space in the drawings. Fig. 5 is a detail side elevation ofthe means for subdividing a mass. of fish into fractional portionsthereof. Fig, 6 is a de- Specification of Letters-Patent. Applicationfiled April 1c, 1913. Serial No. 761,425.

- M HINE FOR HANDLING AND CUTTING EIsII.

tail plan view of the means for segregating the fish and delivering thesame end foremost.

Like numerals refer to like parts throughout the several views of thedrawings.

In the drawings, 8 is the frame of thema- Patented Nov. 18,1913. 9

chine upon-which are preferably mounted the various instrumentalitiesconsisting of a hollow rotary drum 9 having an outer rim 10 and flanges11 and 12 projecting inwardly therefrom. To the interior. of the outerrim 10 between the flanges 11 and 12 are secured a series of buckets 13edit ted to contam fish, said buckets being pre' erably concavo-convex,the concave sides being on the inner side of the buckets or on that sideof said buckets against which the fish are deposited.

The drum 9 is rotatably mounted upon a shaft 14 ournaled to rotate insuitable beanings in the frame 8, a rotary motion being imparted to saidshaft byany suitable means not shown in the drawings. A chute 15 isprovided intowhich fish are deposited in masses and directed therebythrough the opening at one side of said drum to the-- buckets 13. As thedrum 9 is. rotated in the direction of the arrow, Fig. 5, fish from thechute 15 are carried by the buckets 13 upwardly and dumped into a chute16 which is arranged above the chute 15.

The portion of the chute '16 within the drum 9 is a large hopper-likestructure provided with flaring sides 17 and 18, thus as the fish areemptied into said chute they will be conducted to the bottom and to oneside ofv said chute which is provided with an opening to which anotherchute 19 is 0011- 'nected, said chute 19 being U-sha ed and inclineddownwardly. Supported eneath the outer end of the chute 19 and also atan incline is a pair of U-shaped chutes 20 and 21,

'the upper ends thereof'being adjacent to the outer end of the chute 19and directly beneath said chute. These chutes are so arranged that themass of fish which is being conducted alongthe chute 19 will besubdlvided thereb portions of which will be deposited in t e upper endof the chute 20,

while'other portions will be deposited into the chute Q1.

h chute 20 an pr fe b y shg y nected at its lower end to a pair ofchutes 22 and 23, while the chute 21 is connected atits lower end withchutes 24 and 25, thus the fish or masses of fish being conductedthrough the chutes 20 and 21 will be still further subdivided orsegregated by the chutes 22, 23, 24 and 25. Likewise the chutes 22 and23 slightly diverge downwardly as do the chutes 24 and 25, each of saidchutes being connected at their lower ends by a pair of chutes 26, 27,28 and 29 respectively.

Into these last named chutes the fish from the rotary drum 9 are finallydelivered lengthwise or with their ends foremost and along which theyare guided substantially horizontally until they project into the lowerends of said chutes at which points said chutes are provided with slots43. Preferably connecting the lower ends of said chutes 26, 27 28 and 29are means adapted to suspend and guide fish. by their gills, said meanscomprising parallelly arranged members preferably consisting of rods 30and 31 which incline downwardly from the inner ends of said slots 43andas the fish are delivered from said chutes, end foremost one at atime between said rods which are placed just far enough apart to permitthe bodies.

of said fish to pass downwardly therebetween, but near enough to engagethe gills of said fish, said fish will be caught and suspendedtherefrom, by their gills.

The incline of the fods 30 and 31 is sufiicient to cause the fishdeposited therein to slide toward the lower ends thereof and adjacent tosaid lower ends is provided an endless cutter 32, preferably of the bandknife construction which is arranged to revolve about pulleys 33journaled to rotate at opposite sides of the seriesof guides 30 and 31with said cutter arranged to move transversely in contact withpreferably the "lower edges of the rods 30 and31, thus as said fish areguided downwardly between said guiding members they will be forcedagainst the rapidly moving cutting edge 34 of said cutter andthe headsthereof will consequentlybe severed vfrom the bodies permitting thebodies to drop into receptacles 35 placed directly therebeneath fromwhich they may be removed at will; The heads of the fish are 'carriedgacross said cutter and deposited in anoth r receptacle 36. To facilitatethe severing of the heads from the bodies of said fish and'to subsetfuently insure the removal of said heads romsaid cutter, I havepreferably provided a rotary brush 37 comprising a series of rows ofbristles 38 placed at substantial distances apart about the periphery ofthe body of said brush. .The'brush 37 is mounted to rotate in bearings39 on the frame of the machine and may be driven by any suitable means,preferably gearing 40, which in turn may be rotated bythe shaft 41 uponwhich one of the pulleys 33 is mounted, said The general operation ofthe machine hereinbefore described is as follows: The

fishare dumped into the chute 15 and floated along said chute into,thebuckets 13, thus subdividing the mass into fractional portions.- Thebucket-s 13' are then revolved inthe direction of the arrow, Fig. 5,until said buckets, have reached an angle sufficient to into the chutes16 from which they are discharged by jets'of fluid from the nozzle 42,thus causing saiid fish in reduced numbers to slide down the chute 19into the chutes 20 and 21 "in still further reduced numbers, thenceonwardly down said chutes into the chutes 22, 23, 24 and 25 and so ondown the series of chutes illustrated in Fig. 6 to the delivery ends ofthe chutes 26, 27, 28 and 29 from which they are delivered, preferablyone at a time, end foremost between the rods 30 and 31. As soon as thefish have been deposited on said rods the weight of the bodies thereofcauses the same to drop between said rods and as the gills of said fishproject laterally from their bodies, said gills will catch upon the rods30 and 31 thus preventing the fish from falling entirely through theopening between said rods, but suspending said fish by their gillsthereupon, while the sides of said chutes 26, 27, 28 and 29, whichextend beyond the upper ends of said rods, prevent the fish as they areguided or directed'along the tops of said rods from slipping over oneside or the other instead of dropping between the same. These rods, ashereinbefore stated, are inclined and the fish hanging thereto areguided downwardly thereby against the cutter 32 which is movingcontinuously transversely of the guides 30 and 31 in contact with'theupper edges thereof and as'said fish are driven thereagainst, either byjets of fluid such as water or air or the pressure'of the column of fishthereafter, the heads of said fish will be severed from their bodies andthe bodies deposited in the receptacle 35, while the heads thereof willbe carried over said cutter by the brush 37 rotating in conjunctiontherewith, thus depositing said heads in the receptacle 36.

As hereinbefore stated, the continuously moving cutter 32 is" arrangedto operate against the under edges of-said guides 30 and 31. Thisarrangement however may be somewhat, modified, if desired, with saidcutter engaging the upper edges of said guides and without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention.

cause the fish suppdrted thereby to slide off Having thus described myinvention, what I claim and desire by Letters Patent. to secure is: I

1. A machine of the class described having, in combination, meansadapted to guidethe heads from the bodies of said fish" during theirmembers.

3. A machine of the class described having, in combination, a pair ofparallelly arranged members adapted to guide fish suspended by theirgills, and a cutter adapted to move transversely of the upper edges ofsaid members to sever the heads of said fish from their bodies duringtheir passage along said members.

4:. A machine of the class described havpassa-ge along said guiding ing,in combination, means adapted to guide fish suspended bytheir gills,said means including a pair of parallelly arranged members,instrumentalities for subdividing a mass of fish into fractionalportions thereof and delivering said fish end on between said parallellyarranged members, and a cutter arranged to move transversely of saidmembers adapted to sever the heads from the bodies of said fish duringtheir passage along said members. v

.5. A machine of the class described having, in combination, meansadapted to guide fish suspended by their gills, said means including apair of inclined parallelly arranged members, and a cutter arranged tomove transversely of said members adapted to sever the heads from thebodies of said fish I during their passage along said members.

6. A machine of the class, described having, in combination, meansadapted to guide fish suspended by their ills, said means including apair of incllned parallelly arranged'members, a cutter arranged to movetransversely of saidmembers adapted to sever the heads from the bodiesof said fish during their passage along said members and receptacles toreceive said bodies an heads respectively subsequently to the severingthereof.

7. A machine of the class described having, in combination, meansadapted to guide fish suspended by their gills, said means includin apair of inclined parallelly arrange members, a cutter arranged to move 7transversely of said members adapted to sever the heads from the bodiesof said fish during their passage alon said members, receptacles toreceive said odies and heads respectively subsequently to the severingthereof, and means adapted to remove the severed heads,

8. A machine of the class described having, in combination,instrumentalities adapted to segregate fish from a mass and deliver saidfish end foremost, means including a pair of parallelly arranged membersadapted to receive said fish end foremost from said segregating meansand to suspend and guide said fish by their gills, and an endless cutterarranged transversely of said guiding means adapted to sever the headsfrom the bodies of said fish during their passage along said guidingmeans.

9. A machine of the class described having, in combination, a rotarydrum comprising buckets arranged along the periphery thereof,'a chuteadapted to direct a mass of .fish to said drum, a series of chutesadapted to receive fish from said drum to segregate and deliver the sameend foremost, and a pair of parallelly arranged members connected witheach of the chutes constituting said series of chutes, said parallellyar-,

ranged members adapted to receive the fish from their respective chutesto suspend and guide said fish by their gills.

10. A machine of the class described embodying in its construction achute ada ted to guide fish end foremost, and a pair 0 inclined parallelrods connected With the delivery end of said chute adapted to turnsaidfish heads up and to suspend the same by their gills.

11. A machine of the class described embodying in its construction meansadapted to suspend and guide fish by their gills, including a pair ofsubstantially parallel members.

12-. A machine of the class described hav ing, in combination,instrumentalities adaptto segregate fish from a mass and deliver saidfish end foremost, a pair of inclined parallel rods adapted to receivefish from said instrumentalities head foremost to suspend and guide saidfish by their gills, and a continuously moving cutter arranged to movetransversely against the under faces of said rods to sever the headsfrom thebodies of the fish during their passage along said rods.

13. A machine of the class described having, in combinationinstrumentalities adapted to segregate fish from a mass and deliver saidfish end .foremost, a pair of inclined parallel rods adapted to receivefish from said instrumentalities head foremost to suspend and guide saidfish by their gills, a continuously moving cutter arran ed to movetransversely against the under Faces of said rods to sever the headsfrom the bodies of the fishduring their passege along said my hand inpresence of two subscribing witrods, a, chute arranged beneath said rodsadnesses. jacent to the cutting edge of said cutter adapted to receivethe bodies of said fish,

6 and-means to remove -the heads of said fish from said cutter. 7 Intestimony whereoi I have hereuntoset FRANCIS D. CLEVELAND.

Witnesses: CHARLES S. Goonnm,

SYDNEY E. TAFT;

